So you finally got the iOS 18.1 Apple Intelligence update, you got through the waitlist, and you enabled the Notification Summary feature as you signed up. It’s natural: you’re curious and it’s easy to do. And, as Apple says, you can disable and customize it later on in Settings.
Well, now is later. If you’ve been using Notification Summaries for a while, you might be scratching your head as to their usefulness. The new Apple AI feature uses local LLMs to automatically condense multiple messages from the same chat, or from a group chat, into one succinct sentence. It can do this for long iMessage threads and emails, too.
But its summaries aren’t always correct. Sometimes, they can be really far off, in my experience. If you’re finding this feature more annoying than useful, here’s how you can easily turn it off for all apps, or alternatively, just for the Messages or Mail app.
How to turn off and customize notification summaries
Credit: Khamosh Pathak
Like many Apple Intelligence features, there is an off switch for Notification Summaries. Go to Settings > Notifications > Summarize Previews, and from the top, disable the Summarize Previews feature.
Alternatively, you can also disable the Summarize Previews feature on a per-app basis. In the Summarize Previews screen itself, you’ll see a list of all installed apps that can send you notifications. Here, scroll down and tap the toggle next to the app you want to disable summaries for. Now, all notifications from that app will show up like they used to.
To Summarize, or Not to Summarize?
Credit: Khamosh Pathak
After a couple weeks of testing, and now public release, the jury is still out on AI notification summaries. If you’re okay keeping an eye on the feature, and not believing everything it tells you (generally a great policy in everything AI), you can get a lot out of it. Especially if you regularly have to deal with lots and lots of WhatsApp and iMessage threads from work or group chats.
For me, personally, I’ve seen little to no benefit from it, at least yet. Yes, Apple Intelligence can give me the gist of a long-winded message, and that sounds useful, but I always end up checking the message myself anyway, to be sure it got it right. I did find it useful, though, when I got an accurate summary of multiple transactions I made across the day, and what my bank balance was by the end.
Online, people have shared instances where Apple’s LLM has wildly misinterpreted messages, or delivered bad breakup news with starkly non-empathetic language. As these models develop, hopefully they can get better. And if you’re someone who is inundated with countless messages that are the same, or similar, I can see how notification summaries could be quite useful.
